According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2007 the American population over the age of 65 years was an estimated number of 37,887,958. Furthermore, the number of baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964, was about 78.2 million, 74% of which are expected to be between ages 66 and 84 in the year 2030. Compared to the rest of the population, the elderly are more susceptible to health problems and immobility, which may lead to their hospitalization or bed rest at nursing or personal homes. One of the most serious problems with these elderly patients is the increased risk of pressure ulcer development due to the prolonged pressure on their bodies. Pressure ulcers develop on bony protrusions when an outside force restricts the internal capillary pressure for a period of 2 to 6 hours from a healthy range of 20 to 40 mmHg. The incidence of pressure ulcers ranges from 1.3 to 3 million cases within the hospital setting. In addition to pressure ulcers, urinary and fecal incontinence also afflicts a large proportion of the elderly population, which can also contribute to the formation of pressure ulcers by exposing the skin to moisture and to caustic urine or feces. This exposure can lead to delayed healing and also infections of the deep tissues or underlying bone, a cause of severe morbidity or mortality in the frail elderly and immobile population.
The capability to roll an immobile patient in bed on a regular basis is critical to the patient's quality of care. Immobile patients need to be turned every two hours, in order to be protected from the risk of pressure ulcer development. The regular turning of a patient also provides caregivers the proactive opportunity to handle incontinence episodes from developing into extensive problems. The current method for turning a patient is performed manually by two or more caregivers. Regular lifting and moving of patients puts a great amount of load on the caregiver's musculoskeletal system. Healthcare workers have one of the highest incident rates of back pain and musculoskeletal injuries. Among these healthcare providers, nurses have the highest rate of musculoskeletal pain, which is mainly due to manual patient handling. These pains are dominantly experienced in the neck, shoulders, and the lower back, which could further lead to skeletal defects. Nurses with these defects become even more susceptible to occupational injury, which is one of the leading causes of nursing shortage in healthcare.
Studies show that the mandated use of mechanical patient lift devices is potentially the top solution to preventing back pains and injuries in healthcare providers. Unfortunately, devices that are currently available are not widely used by caregivers, as they address a limited amount of the bedridden patients' needs. These devices do not address and solve all the problems associated with turning a patient in an efficient and feasible manner. Although some turn the patient, they do not allow for proper cleaning of the patient. Other current technologies are bulky, expensive, and overall infeasible. Some also require two caregivers to turn the patient, when ideally only a single caregiver should be needed.
Currently available devices for automated turning of patients include air mattresses configured to assist in turning a patient and systems requiring ceiling rails to provide leverage for automated lifting. The air mattress systems are typically limited in function because they only allow patient turning up to thirty degrees. This will relieve pressure to reduce pressure sore development, but it does not allow the caregiver to turn the patient ninety degrees to clean up after an incontinence episode. The rail systems will generally allow complete access to clean up, but the infrastructure required for these systems is very daunting and specific. Only specific infrastructure frames will work for the rail system. Thus such systems are not practical for home use and generally are not readily interchangeable even for use in hospitals, nursing homes, etc.
Other currently available systems employ a turn sheet for turning a patient. For example, Kershaw, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,155,874 and 5,210,887 employs a turn sheet for turning an invalid from a back rest position to a side rest position. However, the turn sheet used is made of a heavy gauge canvas fabric, which is typically uncomfortable to the patient and may propose difficulties to wash, particularly for at home users. Even more importantly, a material that is rough to the skin can severely damage immobile patients as they are prone to pressure sore development, and also have fragile skin. Also, there is no safety mechanism provided to prevent or significantly reduce the risk of turning the patient over too far and/or rolling the patient off of the bed. Still further, there is no feature provided to maintain the turn sheet in the desired position and thus there is a potential for the sheet to be mispositioned/slid from its intended position.
There is a continuing need for automated patient turning systems to relieve the burden on caregivers and nursing staff to clean and care for bedridden patients that require turning.
There is a continuing need for automate patient turning systems that are relatively inexpensive and which can readily be employed for home use as well as in institutional settings such as hospitals and nursing homes.
The present invention meets the above and other needs.